After a questionable decision on Sunday’s Game 4 final possession cost them a win, the Boston Celtics found themselves in a vulnerable position going into Game 5 on Tuesday against the Boston Celtics. Philadelphia Seventy Sixers. What could have been a solid 3-1 series lead turned into an entirely new series, as both teams took the field in Boston looking to put the other on the ropes. This mistake proved costly—the Celtics looked sluggish and absent-minded in game five, losing 115-103 to fall 3-2 in the semifinals for the second straight season.
Jason Tatum was Boston’s leading scorer with 36 points, but he struggled through another slow start as the Celtics fell behind Philadelphia early on. Jaylen Brown was strangely uninvolved on offense, suffering pressure from PJ Tucker and the Sixers defense and attempting only nine field goals through three quarters (16 for the game, 24 points). Philadelphia’s top three players dominated this match. Joel Embiid and James Harden combined for 50 points — including 21 free throw attempts — and Therese Maxe had his best game against the Celtics this season with 30 and six triples.
Marcus Smart opened the scoring for Boston with three straight runs, but the Celtics found a few easier buckets early this evening. The Sixers connected defensively, and even though the Celtics found the bottom of the net reasonably well—45% from the field in the quarter—they had to work on every point. Meanwhile, Philadelphia was unconscious from a three-point range, hitting five, including two MVPs. The Celtics were down by seven after the first quarter, 33-26.
Complicating matters was the Celtics’ ineffectiveness on the glass. They lost the rebound battle by a wide margin in the first half, surrendering five offensive boards, including three to Embiid, one of which resulted in a three-point play. On top of that, it was another slow start from Tatum, who missed his first six shots of the game en route to a 3-of-10 first period.
Philadelphia’s lead swelled to double digits as the second quarter began, as the Sixers opened the frame with a 7-0 lead, forcing a Joe Mazzola timeout with just 90 seconds. 10-0 ran of his own to pull back within reach, but the momentum held for a moment. Their run gave way to more than three minutes of scoreless basketball, and after a half where very little seemed to be going right, they were lucky by just nine points, 58-49.
The Celtics continued to look like they were playing with the game set to “very hard” difficulty as play resumed. They simply couldn’t put points on the board with any consistency, and failed to string two straight sets together in the third quarter. The Sixers did exactly what they needed to do – they caught shots and avoided errors, pushing their lead to 16 entering the final quarter.
Fortunately, Boston’s offense found their first consecutive baskets of the second half in the early minutes of the fourth quarter, a modest 5-0 series behind layups by Brogdon, Tatum, and one. He was humble was all the extent would be; Maxey and Embiid holed a pair of threes either side of a pair of missed free throws from the Browns, and that was the end of any fight the Celtics had this evening.
Then, the fate of the series is on the line, as the Celtics face Game 6 in Philadelphia, Thursday at 7:30 PM EST on ESPN.